One of the biggest knocks against the NBA is that when the season starts, there are only five or six teams that can truly win the championship, making the regular season and the early playoff rounds interminably tedious.
Not this season.
As we reach the midway point – 18 teams have played at least 41 games, another nine have played 40 – there are no less than a dozen teams with legitimate title aspirations, including a handful that haven’t been in the

When the NBA Finals tip off Thursday night, each team will have one member of the All-NBA Teams announced Wednesday.
The Miami Heat will have forward LeBron James, who was joined on the All-NBA First Team by forward Kevin Durant of Oklahoma City, center Joakim Noah and guards James Harden of Houston and Chris Paul of the LA Clippers. Durant, the NBA MVP, was the lone unanimous choice with 125 votes. James came up one vote shy.
The San Antonio Spurs will

LeBron James and Kawhi Leonard figure to be seeing a lot of each other over the next two weeks.
That will be the small forward matchup in the NBA Finals. Just like last year, it should be a good one, because both players were named to the NBA All-Defensive Second Team on Monday.
Neither the Miami Heat nor the San Antonio Spurs have anyone on the All-Defensive First Team, which was voted on by the media and has Defensive Player of the

San Antonio Spurs general manager R.C. Buford won NBA Executive of the Year on Wednesday.
Should he have?
Unlike the other postseason awards, Executive of the Year is voted on by fellow executives, not the media. So it’s difficult to question the validity of the winner when he has been chosen by his peers.
Still … [Read more…]

NEW YORK – Phoenix’s Goran Dragic, who helped lead the Suns to a 23-win improvement while establishing career highs in scoring and field goal percentage, is the winner of the 2013-14 Kia NBA Most Improved Player Award, the NBA announced today.
Dragic received 408 of a possible 1,134 points, including 65 first-place votes, from a panel of 126 sportswriters and broadcasters throughout the United States and Canada. Lance Stephenson of the Indiana Pacers (158 points, 13 first-place votes) and Anthony Davis of

Transparency is a two-way street.
For years, NBA media members – echoing the sentiments of its passionate fan base – wanted more transparency from Commissioner David Stern and his executive staff. Whether it was a lottery drawing, a suspension in the playoffs or a referee scandal, folks felt like they were entitled to an explanation. And they were.
Stern grudgingly came around. He arranged for the media to meet with referees prior to the season about rules changes. He allowed the media

Everyone on this site, it seems, gets to publish individual rankings for everything from MVP to Sixth Man to Rookie of the Year to Most Improved. Heck, we have more rankings on this site than Gallup.
Well, just because Sheridan stuck me and my brother Andy with the Power Rankings — a broader picture looking at the 30 teams, not necessarily the 430 players on them — shouldn’t mean we go voteless, right? I kid. Our canvas is blank, so this

The NBA announced the All-Rookie Team on Tuesday.
Sheridan Hoops announced it on April 11.
We ran a weekly Rookie Rankings this season, and while the Rookie of the Year was decided sometime before the All-Star break, it remained to be seen who would join Portland’s Damian Lillard among the NBA’s top five rookies. [Read more…]